In general, skin wounds, superficial or deep tissue, afflict a great number of people each year. A multitude of different types of skin wounds exist and vary in cause, severity, healing time, location, etc. For example, while certain wounds heal rapidly, i.e., are acute, many have a relatively prolonged healing time, i.e., are chronic and may persist for weeks, months and even years, where in certain instances a wound may persist that never heals. Accordingly, symptoms or manifestations of wounds may vary and may range from, for example mild abrasions to more severe wounds such as open-skin wounds, e.g., open sores, pustules and ulcerations, and the like, which may be debilitating. Wounds may arise from a number of different causes such as falling and scraping of the skin, burns, vascular insufficiency, e.g., caused by age or disease, etc. Regardless of the cause or particular symptoms, skin wounds need to be treated properly in order to promote effective and efficient healing of the wound. An important determinant in whether a wound heals effectively and efficiently is whether the wound has been effectively debrided.
There are a variety of different techniques and products currently in use to debride wounds which may be broadly classified as surgical/sharp, biosurgical, mechanical, chemical, enzymatic and autolytic. For example, some mild abrasions may be irrigated and scrubbed with soap and water in an attempt to remove foreign matter from the wound such as imbedded dirt and the like. However, this procedure is generally painful to the subject and the washing/scrubbing process may in fact damage viable tissue. Other methods include employing disinfectants such as alcohol or iodine-liberating polymers. However, such methods can cause even more tissue damage than soap and water and may also lead to severe scarring.
Accordingly, there continues to be an interest in the development of new methods and compositions for wound care. Of particular interest is the development of such methods and compositions that are able to effectively debride many different types of skin wounds, are effective at removing a variety of different matter from a skin wound, are easy to use, do not cause undue pain to the subject and which are cost effective.